WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1917, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

LIQUOR REFORM

the ultimate settlement.

(Our Special Correspondent)

Wellington, Nov 2d

. In the course of a few days six o’clock closing, with the modification introduced by the Legislative Council allowing liquor to be supplied with meals up to eight o’clock, will conic into operation and before the end of the year the public will be able to judge fairly well what is going to be the tangible effect of this war measure.

In the meantime the hotel-keepers are not contemplating the reduction of the hours with much satisfaction. They and their friends protest that it constitutes a breach of their contract with the State and predict that it is not going to contribute to either the efficiency or the sobriety of the community. On the other hand, the six o’clockers, who include many people outside the ranks of the prohibitionists while prepared to see some increase in the daylight drinking and in the homo consumption, profess to believe there will be a very large reduction in the amount of promiscuous drinking which they regard as one of the most baneful accoinpaniments of the traffic. STATR CONTROL. One effect of the enactment of six o’clock closing has been to direct increased attention to the question of State Control and some people are seeing in Mr Wilford’s elevation to the Ministry a concession to • the growing volume of public opinion which holds that the only cure for the evils of the traffic lies in the extinction of the proprietary interest in the Trade. Of course there is no gronnd for such an assumption. The State Controlists in the country are a such more numerous body than .is generally supposed, but they have neither platform nor organisation and so far even Mr Wilford has subscribed only to the broad principle of making the regulation and supervision of the traffic really effective by the only means available towards that end. The members of the Cabinet are divided on the question and that being the case it is bound to remain in abeyance till after the war. WELLINGTON NORTH SEAT. The somewhat premature discussion of the prospects of the by-elec-tion in Wellington North, which, of course, will be inevitable when the Hon A. L. Herdman, the present Attorney-General, takes his seat on the Supreme Court Bench, seems to indicate there will be trouble for the National Government when the contest actually begins.

The Prime Minister has given the newspapers to understand that Mr ,7. P. Luke, C.M.G., the Mayor, will be the official candidate under the conditions of the party truce and that he will have the full weight of the Cabinet behind him in the contest, bnt in spite of his very excellent war work and his other services to the city Mr Luke is not exactly a persona grata to a number of electors in the constituency and other candidates are being encouraged to come forward. Colonel Hughes is already in the field as an independent candidate and is personally so popular that if he insists on going to the poll he must give the Government nominee a very hard run. Then the Labour Party are considering putting a candidate forward as a frank critic; to the National Government and it is being whispered about that the members of Mr Herdman’s elec lion committee are not satisfied with the Prime Minister’s choice and have determined to take a free hand in the impending struggle. Altogether the position appears likely to be even more difficult than was that in Hawke's Bay in somewhat similar circumstances. THE MINISTER AND THE JUDGE. In the meantime Mr Herdman's appointment to the Bench, which is now taken for granted, is giving the disgruntled journalists an opportunity to pay off old scores against the retiring Minister in the way most acceptable to their personal grudges and political bias. According to these critics he enjoys no professional eminence, has little legal experience, is lacking in human sympathy, and temperamentally unfitted for the high office to which he aspires.

Most o£ them admit that lie is conscientious, sincere, courageous and possessed of the judicial mind, but further than this the}' will make no concession in his favour. They imply that he put a pistol to the head of the Prime Minister when he demanded the Attorney-Generalship as the price of his support to the National Government and that ever since he has schemed for the reward that now appears to be awaiting him. Perhaps the Minister will be able to obtain some comfort from the fact that much the same things were said of the distinguished judge he is succeeding and whose retirement everyone is now deploring.